The Wolfman

[MacGuffin]

Romanek stalks Del Toro 'Wolfman'
Source: Hollywood Reporter

Director Mark Romanek has been hired to bring "The Wolfman" to the big screen. Scott Stuber and Mary Parent are producing the remake of the classic Universal Studios monster, which has Benicio Del Toro attached to star. Del Toro also is on board as a producer with Rick Yorn.

The movie will hew to the period pedigree of the 1941 original, in which a man returns from the U.S. to his ancestral home in Victorian-era Great Britain, gets bitten by a werewolf and begins a hairy moonlight existence.

Andrew Kevin Walker wrote the screenplay.

A fall start is being planned.

"Mark has a great love and knowledge of film," Stuber said. "He's a great and authentic storyteller. He looks for the truth in the characters, the scenes and in the set design. It's going to be exciting to see what he brings to the horror genre."

Music video helmer Romanek, who directed the Weezer video "El Scorcho" and Johnny Cash's "Trust," wrote and directed "One Hour Photo."

[polkablues]

Let's slow this down for a second.

Benicio Del Toro

returns from the U.S. to his ancestral home in Victorian-era Great Britain

And then some nonsense about authenticity.

Still, between this and the Che movie, it'll be nice to start seeing that son of a bitch in movies again.

[modage]

i know i hate remakes and everything but THIS IS GOING TO BE AWESOME.  love romanek, love del toro, it's been a long time since i've seen either of them.  i can't wait.

[MacGuffin]

EXCL: Who's Creating the Wolfman?
Source: ShockTillYouDrop

The answer is a natural choice, when you come to think of it. He's built a career on uncanny werewolf and ape FX, Eddie Murphy blockbusters and other astonishing works including The Frighteners and The Ring. Plus, he's a six-time Oscar winner. So, take that.

Yes, friends, FX maestro Rick Baker is back on lycanthrope duties.

ShockTillYouDrop.com received word from within the walls of Universal that Baker is in the prepping stages of bringing The Wolfman to life in Mark Romanek's remake.

Shooting begins, based on a script by Andrew Kevin Walker, this December with a November 14, 2008 release on the horizon. Benicio Del Toro is playing the cursed eponymous role made famous by Lon Chaney, Jr. in 1941.

Baker's history of lycanthropy began, of course, with An American Werewolf in London and continued into "Thriller" (well, what that is Jackson turns into), "Werewolf" (the TV series), Wolf and Wes Craven's Cursed.




AintItCool have run a picture of Rick Baker and Benicio Del Toro playing werewolves and, frankly, I found it very exciting. Even more brilliant is Mark Romanek's statement about the image:

This was taken about three months ago -- Our first meeting with the three of us.

This pose was a jokey homage to the classic Universal Wolfman/Famous Monsters Magazine-era style, but seeing Benicio getting "wolfy" for the first time, even in jest, gave us chills. It was our first glimpse of what we could expect from this amazingly original and gifted actor.

It was very exciting to see these guys in the same room. Rick could tell immediately that Benicio was a sincere fan of the Lon Chaney Jr. original. Rick is such a Wolfman fan, he admitted that he's only campaigned for two films in his entire career. One was Ed Wood and the other is this project.

Seeing them together in the same room made me feel the project was finally becoming a reality.

Rick's assistant Kazu took extensive hi-rez digital photos (on this incredible 30 megapixel Hasselblad digital camera) of Benny making various facial expressions. we were all so stunned to see just how expressive Benicio's snarls and grimaces were, even without make-up.

Rick joked, "so, whattaya need ME for?!"

That said, the designs that Rick has created for Benicio are astonishing -- subtle, detailed, (sexy), terrifying.

[MacGuffin]

Benicio Del Toro Ready For A Horrific Time As 'The Wolf Man'
Source: MTV

Has there been a better casting idea than Benicio Del Toro as the Wolf Man in recent memory? After seeing him up close and personal yesterday, I can't think of one. Currently the Oscar winner is sporting a scruffy look but that's for his next role as Che Guevara in two films for Steven Soderbergh. Still, it's not hard to imagine how great a brooding Lawrence Talbot he will make soon enough.

Del Toro seems psyched for the project to be directed by Mark Romanek. "We're trying to go back to the original. There's something very nostalgic about it for me. I loved all those monsters when I was a kid," he said.

Asked if, as rumored, Anthony Hopkins is on board as well Del Toro said, "I think so," before adding that the final deals haven't been closed nor has a starting date been determined. Excitedly Del Toro said, "I have never done a horror film." He quickly added with a laugh, "maybe a lot of my films already are horror films."

[MacGuffin]

Confirmed: Anthony Hopkins In For 'The Wolf Man'
Source: MTV

After months of speculation from both film sites and Benicio Del Toro, we're happy to finally confirm that legendary thesp Anthony Hopkins is indeed onboard for Universal's new take on a classic monster.

"I'm going to do 'The Wolf Man' with Benicio Del Toro," Hopkins stated matter-of-factly during an interview for his new experimental art film, "Slipstream."

Hopkins will play Sir John Talbot, father to Del Toro's Lawrence Talbot, the character who becomes afflicted with the werewolf curse. The pic — scheduled for an early '09 release — is helmed by music video director Mark Romanek, who has worked with such acts as Weezer, Michael Jackson, Madonna and R.E.M.

[MacGuffin]

Director Quits Uni's 'Wolfman' Remake
Source: Deadline Hollywood

Start your engines, agents, because this is a prime project to slot in one of your many out-of-work directors. I have no doubt that Universal will find another helmer by the end of the week after Mark Romanek quit Universal's The Wolfman. That's right, quit. "He just blew the opportunity of a lifetime, which is mind-boggling," an insider tells me. The commercial and video director did the well received but small budget One Hour Photo and made the step up to a big studio pic with a budget of $100 mil (but the cost is only $85M to Uni because of the UK rebate). But then Romanek decided he couldn't make the film with just that dough. "He's a purist, an artiste, an exquisite craftsman, but he just had a budget schedule he couldn't accomodate," an insider explains. Talk about career suicide.


Romanek drops out of 'Wolf Man'
Director exits film over creative differences
Source: Variety

Director Mark Romanek has ankled "The Wolf Man," putting Universal Pictures in the position of holding together a film just after it patched up "State of Play" due to after the exit of Brad Pitt.

Romanek exited the film late Monday night over creative differences. The film has long had Benicio Del Toro aboard to play the werewolf, and the studio just set Emily Blunt ("Charlie Wilson's War") and Anthony Hopkins to play the other leads in the film.

The studio maintains that Romanek left the project in strong shape and that it expects to set another director quickly. No word on whether a Feb. 18 start date will remain in place.

[w/o horse]

Romanek was a wrong choice from the get-go.  Any name kind of person.  But it's been a year and I can just imagine how tight the planning already is, and who is going to say "Well let's restructure this $100m film that everyone has already put time and effort into and make it something closer to my personal vision" you know.  Not on a film like this.  It's director for hire now and good is this film's loftiest aspiration.   Fucking shame.

[modage]

awful news.  now i don't care about this film anymore.

[MacGuffin]

Wolf Man Helmer Sought
Two directing candidates rumored.

No sooner was it reported yesterday that filmmaker Mark Romanek had exited Universal's remake of The Wolf Man -- starring Benicio Del Toro, Anthony Hopkins, and Emily Blunt -- than rumors surfaced about who might replace him in the director's chair.

Romanek's departure left the re-imagining of the 1941 horror classic in a lurch given its March start date. Variety reported yesterday that a replacement would be hired by week's end, and now Ain't It Cool News claims that they have heard of two possible contenders that the studio is considering for the job.

According to AICN, Universal is eyeing Breck Eisner (Sahara) and Matt Reeves (Cloverfield) as possible replacements. Eisner has been developing a remake of The Creature From the Black Lagoon, while Reeves is preoccupied with a possible Cloverfield sequel as well as an Invisible Woman project for producer J.J. Abrams.

Eisner may have the inside track since the long-gestating Creature From the Black Lagoon is, like The Wolf Man, based at Universal.

[hedwig]

AICN is reporting that universal has settled on a replacement: BRETT MOTHERFUCKING RATNER.

the chances for this movie to be awesome were lowered exponentially when romanek left and if this turns out to be true, those chances will pretty much vanish. so this is just salt in the wound.

[cinemanarchist]

I would rather they let the stable of Playboy bunnies he has fucked direct this movie instead of him. Brett Nasty I hate you so much.

[diggler]

another one bites the dust...

[MacGuffin]

He probably heard PTA wanted to direct a horror film and didn't want to be left out.

[SiliasRuby]

When you can't get anyone remotely creative their thought was "lets go for the exact opposite"...and boom Brett.